from Day by Day with the Persecuted Church
Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. In tithes and offerings. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this ... and see if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. (Malachi 3:8-10)
Lung Singh
Lung Singh was sitting in his little bamboo house, reading the Bible, while his wife Bunmah was preparing a meal. It was not much of a meal because they had hardly any food left. Being poor refugees she tried to divide the little rice that was left over into seven portions, so that they would have at least some food for the rest of the week.
All of a sudden Lung Singh called his wife, "Bunmah, we have stolen from God" and read to her from Malachi 3. "What do you think God means that he wants ten per cent of what we have? Everything we have comes from Him anyway, so why does He want it back?"
"Of course not" his wife said, "We don't even have enough rice for ourselves to eat. If we give God some of it we will starve ourselves."
"Maybe we have so little because we give so little" Singh replied.
When he came to my house telling me this story, I looked at him. A poor man, should I tell him that we don't live under the law of the Old Testament anymore but under the grace of the New Covenant? I am glad I did not tell him that. Singh would have replied that the grace of God is worth more than ten percent!
That evening Lung Singh sold ten percent of his rice, two chickens and one duck (out of twenty chickens and nine ducks - his total belongings) and put the money in the offering the next Sunday. Not because he had to but because he wanted to. No wonder he was such a happy, spiritual man.
Writer of the Month: Lung Singh from Laos. He did not write his own contributions, but Jan Pit has edited his experiences and remarks and printed them under his name in this devotional. His life story is recorded in the book No Turning Back by Jan Pit, Marshall Pickering, 1985. According to rumors Singh was killed by his brother because of his faith in Jesus Christ.
Copyright [C] 1995 Open Doors International. Used by permission.
Click here to sign up for a free monthly newsletter from Open Doors about persecuted Christians.
compiled by Jan Pit with a forward by Brother Andrew (paperback, revised 2000)
Compelling wisdom from the pen of actual believers living amidst persecution, you'll be connected to the suffering, courage, and depth of life that exists in the harshest places in the world. Each of these 365 thought-provoking devotions will deepen your understanding of Christian persecution and provoke you to pray for our brothers and sisters with a new found depth.
To order your copy of this devotional, click 
